Historian’s distress over shelved book

Robert Wistrich (right) with Dominic Lawson and Howard Jacobson at the LJCC (Photo: Simon Waxman)

An award-winning expert on antisemitism this week condemned a publisher’s “deplorable” decision not to release his book in the UK in the face of a threat of libel action from Holocaust denier David Irving.

Professor Robert Wistrich, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, revealed his frustration during a debate at the London Jewish Cultural Centre on Monday.

He said Random House New York decided to withhold his 2010 book A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad, after “Irving threatened to sue the publishers if a single copy was sold in the UK”.

In the book Prof Wistrich devotes two pages to Mr Irving’s career as a denier, and includes details of his failed libel suit against historian Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books.

“Random House looked at it from a business angle, and decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble,” Prof Wistich said.

“It’s astonishing that they didn’t call his bluff — it’s not anything that hasn’t been printed before.

“Irving is a footnote in the history of antisemitism. I offered to take the pages out, but they just weren’t prepared to go through the hassle. It’s very distressing to say the least.”